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Sunday, February 16, 2014

This will be my last post on Carver's Sight or is that Site? for the foreseeable future. After I publish this post all new posts, following this one, will be on my other blog. You can click here for that blog, Carver's Photographic Journey.I started blogging here in August of 2006 as a way of dealing with Stage III melanoma, the interminable follow up appointments and scans, as well as the physical problems I've had since the groin lymph node dissection. I stayed on edge because I ended up with ongoing and at times debilitating health problems.

When I first started blogging, I used photographs to serve as breathing spaces in between the flow of words. I also used this blog as a way to house links to research, clinical trials, and information about advanced melanoma.

As time went on, I became more interested in photography and less interested in discussing my health issues. When I first started my other blog, I called it Carver Cards and my idea was to have each post on that blog be one large format photograph. Carver Cards was the name I used in the 1990s when I made stationary cards with my flower photography on the front.

I wanted two blogs because my original idea was that I would continue to write about what was on my mind on this blog while keeping the other blog free of health whines.

As time went on, I didn't want to continue talking about myself (other than in terms of nature or other interests) on either one of my blogs and they have both gradually ended up being places where I post photographs and participate in online group themes (Photohunters, Nature Notes and Today's Flowers on this blog and Our World, ABC Wednesday, SkyWatch and the Weekend in Black and White on my other blog).

I will probably continue to participate fairly regularly in the same group themes but there isn't any reason not to do that on the same blog. I decided that Carver's Photographic Journey was a better choice for that purpose. I changed the name of Carver Cards a while back because that blog had become a photographic journey of sorts.

I have a superstitious side which has made me afraid that if I close this blog I'll have a cancer recurrence. The lymph nodes in the basin where my nodular melanoma spread to were removed in March of 2005. I started out with a poor prognosis because my primary was so deep and the melanoma had spread to a lymph node. However, after so many years it is highly unlikely that my melanoma will have spread to an organ or other nodes and even in the unlikely event that it does, I doubt I'll want to talk about it.

I still see a number of medical specialists although I've started streamlining how many I see. I've found that limiting the number of doctors I see is good for my health overall.

I had to give up on most of my exercise efforts and attempts to get back to where I was physically, prior to when all of my health issues began, but I'm starting to walk again regularly which helps me mentally.

I think I'll end it here and continue with my photographic meme posts on Carver's Photographic Journey. However, first I'll digress. I've never understood the word meme. When I first saw meme, I thought it looked like ME ME but found out it's an umbrella word for organized participatory blog themes. I googled meme and found this definition on wikipedia:a meme is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." There is a long article going into the origins and expanded meaning of the word meme which was first used in a book published in 1976 called The Selfish Gene.

When I googled blog memes I found this, also on wikipedia: an internet meme is an idea, style or action which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet, as with imitating the concept. I have to say that I think there should be a better word for the participatory activities on the Internet. It's not imitation when each person is taking a theme and showing their world through photographs, essays, etc.

Also, what I like about the memes I participate in is that I learn more about people from different parts of the world as seen through the eyes of their camera or poetry or essays. Even if I wanted to imitate blogs I visit, that wouldn't be an option because people are sharing their neck of the woods so to speak and we all live in different places, visit different places and have different camera equipment, creative and technical skills. I lied before, I didn't end there, I'm ending here.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Last weekend I went on a walk and looked for vertical reflections for the upcoming photohunt.

I found a bunch of vertical reflections on my walk.

Today (Thursday) I am reflecting on my sincere desire that my trees remain vertical. We had snow and freezing rain last night and freezing rain and snow today.

I have already lost power during the evening on Wednesday, this morning (Thursday) and briefly when I first started composing this post in advance.

I will end my reflection by saying that I have it much easier than the birds who seek shelter in vertical trees and bushes. The birds in these shots are being fed by me on my deck so that helps them somewhat.

As we walked by, flocks of birds would emerge from the grasses but I didn't get any good bird shots.

The rest of the shots were taken during a walk on the Crabtree Creek trail.

This trail is on the other side of the road from the Shelley Lake trail I frequently walk on.

Runners frequently continue on this trail after running on the Shelley Lake portion.

Back when I jogged I hoped to get to the point where I could jog that far but health issues made me stop jogging. There is a 26 mile loop which includes a number of these connected greenway trails which marathon runners use.

If I want to walk on this trail I drive and park where it begins because by the time I would get there walking from home on the greenway trails near my house; just turning around at the start point and walking back to my house would be a long walk for me.

Monday, February 03, 2014

After a brief reprieve with a mild Monday, the cold air came back full force on Tuesday.

I photographed the red-bellied woodpecker through my window on Tuesday and the hawk through my window on Wednesday.

The mourning dove and possibly a grackle are eating seeds on my deck wall on Wednesday morning in the shot below.

The male cardinal is watching me put food on the wall (after I cleared off the snow) below.

I went on a walk after taking care of the birds and enjoyed the snow although it was very cold.

I was glad to see that many people in the neighborhood filled their feeders and I shot the carolina chickadee below at a house around the corner from me.

I made it to the closest park trail and checked out the creek.

I know some of you have been getting too much snow and bitter cold weather but after barely having winter last year, I'm enjoying this one.

However, our cold weather has been in the low teens F as opposed to the much colder weather many people have had this winter. Also, we have been getting breaks with it alternating between spring and winter weather every so often.

It's wild the way we can have 50 or even more degrees difference between warmer and colder periods. I've been taking a ton of pictures of the juncos.

The male rufous-sided towhee below seemed to be watching me on Thursday.

I've had a hard time keeping fresh water in the bird baths.

My azalea bushes dripped icicles.

Thursday ended up being a beautiful day and it got warmer.

The finch enjoyed a bath on Friday which was even warmer.

The female rufous-sided towhee showed me her profile.

The male cardinal looked a bit bedraggled.

The female cardinal looked like she was debating a bath.

We had a wonderful sunset Friday night.

Most of the snow had melted by Saturday but when I went to Shelley lake I discovered the woodland part of the trails still had some snow left.

It was almost like two different places between the woods and the sunny parts around the lake.

I was taking pictures when someone pointed out the bald eagle and I managed a few shots but none were that good (eagle near the top on the left and two herons on the right side near the top).

Most of the lake was still frozen on Saturday but it was beginning to thaw in the sun.

I caught the great blue heron taking off below.

The heron was strutting in the next shot. I saw four different great blue herons at the lake on Saturday.

I took so many shots last week all my posts are getting long.

I like the way the moss and ferns look peeking out of the snow.

My what a difference a day makes. Sunday the lake was completely thawed out and the only ice left were a few bits and pieces in the creeks.

Sunday was groundhog day which I guess means there will be six more weeks of winter if I go by the last shot filled with shadows.

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Me and my blogs . . .

I like to take photographs and I use blogging as a way to share my photography. I started blogging for other reasons but no longer feel the need or have the desire to write beyond a narrative for my photography.